Reading the waves : fluid regionalism in twentieth-century Maritime literature

Abstract

Through the application of feminist methodology, this study considers Maritime literature from the early twentieth century onward as an active process of regional identity formation. This body of literature is divided into three Waves that are imagined as continually expanding outward or ensuing from each other in order to encompass more people, experiences, and settings as 'Maritime'. Through this model, the region's literature moves from presenting a geographically determined place to a setting that is imagined through individual subjectivities. The First Wave presents images of the Folk and idyll; the Second Wave re-imagines the rural setting in terms of (de)industrialization and masculinity; and finally the Third Wave acknowledges contemporary urban and female narratives. Included in the discussion of each Wave are textual representations, historical influences, and market reception.